Luke
I have gone on the record as saying that the Wolfenstein reboot games are my favourite FPS’ titles of the last 10 years due to the story and meaty as fuck gunplay featured heavily in the games. So I was bit… hesitant when Youngblood was announced as a co-op focused title set in the Wolfenstein universe.
I know this isn’t the first time that the reboot has ventured into slightly different territory after the release of the alternate timeline of The Old Blood; it proved that it was absolutely okay to do this.
…But why does it feel like something is just missing in Youngblood?
The gunplay is the best it’s ever been with myself and Will varying our techniques that each of us worked as a singular unit (badly, but a unit all the same) that the general gameplay is so perfect that I genuinely cannot pick a fault in the game. Every gun feels as meaty as the next with the Shotgun in particular blowing actual holes in Nazis and tearing them all to shreds.
However as I mentioned above, my favourite part of the Wolfenstein reboot has been a mixture of solid, meaty gunplay and story and I think that’s where this falls down a little bit. Youngblood’s story is basically nonexistent.
In place of this is a series of missions in open maps designed to level your characters up (similar to Destiny and other MMO’s) before you enter a “raid” on the one of the games 4 main bosses that may or may not have BJ Blazcowicz hidden in their compound and this is my issue really; the gunplay is awesome but I wanted a story and not a Wolfenstein MMO.
That’s not to say that Youngblood ISN’T good and it has done some amazing things that many other titles needs to follow suit with – For example if your game is going to be co-op then inclusion of something like the buddy pass is absolutely key allowing me to play the game in coop without hoping that some of my friends have bought the game as well.
There’s a lot of fun to be had with blowing Nazis to smithereens and I am still having a blast playing Youngblood, however a paper thin storyline in a universe where I have been chomping at the bit for story expansion just feels like a bit of a slap in the face.
Incredible co-op and gameplay abound however, I honestly have had more fun in the playing of Wolfenstein: Youngblood than I have any other FPS in recent years and I give it a solid 8/10.
Willam
So what can I say that hasn’t already been said?
As you can tell me and Luke have had a hell of a time larking about in Paris with a multitude of big guns and sick armor powers! It’s clear though that with the way we’ve ended up that the new RPG elements and co-op gameplay lend themselves to each player leaning a certain way.
For example, Luke has gone in as a stealth character using a cloak ability and throwing weapons to sneaky up on the unsuspecting Nazi types; this would probably be a really solid tactic and work wonders if it wasn’t for my loud ass running THROUGH Nazis, and using the largest available weapons! I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard Luke yelling over the headset “Wait I wanna sneak!” as I plowed through the walls like a more violent Kool-Aid man (OH YEAH!)!
While the new RPG and co-op focuses refreshes the set up of the franchise in a way that was definitely needed before it got stale, there are a few issues that still sit right in my face like an Ubercommando with a red head fetish. Mostly its the movement, every step you take feels almost like the characters are running on ice, they seem to take a few steps to both get up to speed and to slow down, couple that with some of the weapons having about as much punch as a water balloon and most noticeably the shotgun having a range similar flick to the plums, really it makes the game harder to play but in a bullshit way!
Basically this is the video game equivalent of Hobbs & Shaw, dumb shit that really shouldn’t work but you’ll be having such a good time you won’t even care! just grab yourself a big gun and make the Nazis pay!